Category: Reading

A few interesting picks of all the “made-up” words

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The word QUIZ was coined  by Richard Daley to win a bet .The story goes that he got some kids to write the new word he had made up on the streets of Dublin in the night . The next day , the people of the town were talking about the word that was scribbled all over the town on several walls . When Daley was questioned as to the meaning of the word he had  replied ” a puzzle ” .
Today , making up new words has become a little easier  – a writer just makes up a  new word when he thinks he needs one and some are made up by the netizens  to up their social  media swag -quotient .
And here’s a list of some interesting words –

Types of Quorans

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I signed up for Quora in July 2016. I would have made a reference to it in one of the posts. The Quora that I signed up for was a knowledge-sharing platform. During the early days, it was a social media platform with a difference – you read even if your book reading took a backseat with all the deadlines and most importantly, read about things that matter. The title speaks for itself. So let’s get started…

       Storytellers:

These are the guys who have a story for every question they answer. As we know people tell stories in their way and so the storyteller tag itself is a generalization.

           Just for Laughs Only storytellers:

               Warning: Read at your own risk in office as these answers will crack you up and you would definitely get some weird looks if it happens too often. Or if you are the kind of person who can always manage a placid smile , then you can go ahead.

These guys are probably cousins to the Facebook meme creators. They ace the art of telling stories in a rib-tickling way and rival the stand-up comedians with their narrative spiced with puns and definitely their own unique style of writing. Any question they choose to answer should have a story and most importantly should be told so that the readers have a good laugh. When the answer nails these two factors, it automatically rakes the upvotes. For those who are for Laughter is the best medicine, when you cannot go for Facebook or Twitter, you can go for Quora also now.

       Enlightened storytellers:

These guys are the ones who have graduated from the first category. They have finally realized that you don’t have to make the reader smile or LOL with every story and that there are other stories also to be told for some answers-inspiring personal stories, personal stories that sometimes reveal about the person with the “popular Quoran” tag whom several try to emulate (definitely) and most importantly about inspiring people whom many of us have very little idea or no idea about .Whatever story they tell they make the reader sit through it to the very end. When the reader finishes reading the answer, it leaves the reader with questions/new insights or pondering about the opinions put forth. Whatever their answers do, the readers have a takeaway from each answer. The stories cannot be simply categorized-they know which story should be told for any question.

Some of them have been very honest about their journey from being a JFL storyteller just to establish a good follower base to telling stories that need to be told today. The answers that are introspective about the journey and setting new goals by some of the really honest guys are as good as motivational blogs and TED talks. These people show how to do things when they write those answers.

      Masked storytellers

          Not all heard stories are easy to digest for the readers. We can only imagine about other stories which we have not heard.

I have seen several anonymous answers raking upvotes and helpful comments by the awesome Quora community (not meaning to sound insensitive) than the stories which identifies the writer.

Their stories drill the hard fact that all good things in life will not be handed to you in a platter sometimes. You have to beat the odds to reach where you want to. A few answers are people who are still struggling but very optimistic that they will make it.Some answers would make you wish you knew that person and heard the story from their own mouth. These guys are the ones who have bounced forward. The society, their family circumstances, their failures-nothing shakes/shook them. They take/have taken things in their stride.

Another set of answers are written by people who want to unburden themselves about some harrowing experiences in life which they wouldn’t confide even to those closest to them for the fear of being judged/sparing their loved ones the pain which they suffer constantly. The Quora community reaches out to these people which encouraging words and I have seen several of these storytellers coming up with Edits about how those words have been consoling and they are looking forward to moving on.Some have gone to write about bouncing back in the Edits.

The Mentor

These writers were probably Adam D’ Angelo’s target audience when he together with Charlie Cheever came up with the idea of Quora.

They painstakingly write quite lengthy but super-informative answers on how-to-learn or choosing-between-X-or-Y or about complex concepts and several others questions beginners have in a particular field. Some of them actually substantiate their answers with stats and a bonus of list of reference links for more info/tools for learning/links for courses. A single answer can provide a wealth of information and give a head-start for the reader’s learning journey. Several of them give the tips & tricks they followed during their learning phase too.

I specially love those writers who narrate the story of their learning journey with all the mistakes they made (which the reader had also made/might be making) and most importantly, how they got back on track which serves for reassuring the beginners that perseverance pays off when some beginners feel anxious about getting stuck in learning-plateaus (I was one of those beginners…So special mention about these answers).

The Prime Time Debate Panelist:

As the country which drives the highest traffic to Quora, this is an exclusively Indian thing. The Quorans who write about India’s current political scenario are divided into two camps. No wonders there-there are no-so-healthy discussions in the comments sections or tongue-in-cheek answers about why the other camp has got it wrong completely. It becomes really ugly only when people specially from the camp that is critical about the Government write anonymously and begin their answer with the explanation-I am one step from getting banned. Some of the “not-so popular” but definitely bold writers from the camp have got banned. So, the seasoned political critic has to resort to this safety measure so that another dissenting voice is not banned from putting forth his/her opinions.

I believe that people of a free democratic state have the freedom of speech. It becomes a joke when we can make Trump jokes and Brexit jokes but cannot see what has happened at the home front. The current Government is honest enough to set the example for their Digital India campaign when every minister in the Cabinet is active on the social media like Facebook and Twitter. But, Quora is a different social media platform-questions will be asked and dissenting comments with solid facts for which the Minister has to come up with an convincing reply much like their “epic tweets”. Quora does not need their presence-their faithful followers in Twitter and Facebook are doing their job. So, why worry? With all honesty, one camp has an unfair advantage over the other like in most of the prime time debates on Indian news channels.

With several non-Indians hinting about their feeds monopolized by questions about The Great Indian Socio-Political and Economic scenario (one guy was frank enough to suggest that India should have its own Quora) where we would probably be able to thrash another writer’s opinions from the opposite camp without any fear about moderation from Quora. Well, rules can be relaxed as user experience matters and most importantly user engagement.

The Avid reader

The one who reads and reads but doesn’t write much and upvotes good answers. Quora freshers are in awe of the “popular Quorans” and even a comment from one of them, for one answer makes them ecstatic. You need to see some of their replies!! The fandom reaction for anything a “popular Quoran” does is becoming somewhat of fandom reaction for celebs.These are the most underrated guys very understandably but these guys also drive a good amount of traffic to the site and most importantly, make the writers write often and better.

Today the platform for “gaining and sharing knowledge” is just another social media platform. Quora follower-base is just like Facebook’s Friends list and Twitter followers. The stats say that India drives the largest traffic to Quora (33.3%) compared with 26.5% from US. But we don’t need the stats-we see it everyday. Now, Quora has become another in-fad platform that Indians have to try out. Quora has become a platform where every wannabe writer practices writing and there are too many of those answers that are written only for raking upvotes and every other reason except sharing knowledge and even for really interesting questions the answer is in the Indian context . My Quora feed has no variety and is flooded with answers on select number of topics when there are a wide range of topics. Click here for the full list of topics on Quora. The Quora follower-base has given them bragging rights because ” Brainy is the new sexy”. I think it’s the beginning of Quora becoming another Facebook/Twitter because this is what we Quorans get to see everytime nowadays

 

  • You upvoted this answer on this topic and so we bring you more answers on this topic.
  • You have answered questions under this topic and so read other answers on this topic
  • You can “discover new topics” with a list of related topics with the names of the “popular Quorans” you are following who are following those topics
  • Notifications like XYZ upvoted this answer after seeing your upvote

To gain an edge over its competitor Q & A sites Adam D’Angelo made sure Quora had the crowd-pulling features of both Facebook and Twitter. The Quora blogs feature is just taking things too far-Its like Lenka singing

All I wanna be
Is everything

Everything at once

By now, you can guess which category I fall into. I was also into honing my writing skills when I signed up for Quora but eventually I was not interested to enter into a rat-race that people where making Quora writing to be. I am still mostly answering A2As about book recommendations and anything on literature and some interesting questions in random topics.If you are wondering if I am still reading Quora-Yes, I read but mostly answers by the last two Quoran writers and sometimes stories by the last two kinds of storytellers.

 

A Writer’s gotta write first…

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There is one Indian author whom I have been following very closely for anything except his writing. The man is not confined to writing bestsellers alone- he is a reputed columnist who writes very insightful articles on any niche,a screenplay writer for some of the highest box-office-grossing movies in Bollywood ( Hollywood,you have missed out a great talent…) whom The New York Times identified as ” the biggest selling English language novelist in India’s history” in 2008. Perhaps,that might be true – but are his works really noteworthy? If you are not familiar with Indian writing,I ‘ll tell it straight-Chetan Bhagat.

           First Point Someone was really good for a debut novel-the narrative style, the rib-tickling  wry humor (courtesy Ryan) were instant hit with  the audience ( particularly the youth) and Chetan Bhagat  became a voice of the youth and most importantly, for the youth .Most importantly,it portrayed the failings in the Indian Education System that was prevalent even in the premier institutes of the nation like IIT. Being an alumnus of one such institutions,the narrative voiced the disappointment which he probably felt during his Under Grad years and he did it in a very entertaining way with his prime characters-Alok Gupta and Hari Kumar when Hari says “ So, we’re not just five-point somethings anymore, we are five point somebodies. ” when they manage to get a job finally.

So,when 2 States came out,this time Chetan Bhagat’s strategy became very apparent. I should say that he is a man who  should know very well that ” Successful people do not necessarily do extraordinary things-they do ordinary things  in an extraordinary way”. When you tell a regular campus love story with all drama in Bollywood style with all the drama thrown in  with a happily-ever-after ending, the masala factor became the crowd puller rather than the writing. Yeah, it was a fun read again only for his tongue-in-cheek narrative and humor. But, I had learnt to not expect much and had designated Chetan’s books for a light read during 6 hour train journeys.

When a picked up my last Chetan Bhagat novel, I remember thinking about The Three Mistakes Of my Life after finishing it

  • Picking up a Chetan Bhagat book again
  • Sitting through a plot-line that does not resonate with the political climate ( set in Gujarat during the earthquake and later communal riots in 2002 ). If at all anything,I was mentally making note of n number things that went wrong that were too jarring.Let’s say I became a better reader and ever better at picking up books
  • Still giving a place for Chetan Bhagat’s books in my bookshelf- Five Point Someone can stay.The others are going to the second hand book-dealer very soon.

He became a pioneer of a new kind of storytelling. Several other motivated Indian youth joined the bandwagon of this breed of storytellers who believed that stories need everything else-the masala factor, very creative and intriguing names like this one( Of course I love you..!Till I Find SomeOne Better, Now That You’re Rich Lets Fall in Love– this guy can give starters tips on how he comes up with such titles that gets the reader hooked even before he/she take a read at the plot summary) , a narrative that borders more on the type of fantasy genre with the most improbable locations and situations) .

When finally One Indian Girl came out,Chetan Bhagat marketed it aggressively on social media.But,when the book became epic disaster( finally, the average Indian had learnt to choose better as Chetan Bhagat was touted to be the one who made them read English books…Duh!! ). Have a look as the Indian twitterati trolled him and its too spot on and hilarious to miss out. Click on this link- Just for laughs

When people become staunch advocates for these writers saying that they made the average Indian to pick up English books,I have only one thing to say to them-

Indians’ contribution to the English literature did not start with Chetan Bhagat or the others. It started way back during the independence struggle only with Rabindranath Tagore, R.K.Narayan. For a better idea, have a look at this Wikipedia article. I am planning to check out one or two myself.

I should say that Chetan Bhagat was working all the while for making his entry into Bollywood as a screenplay writer. I can say whole-heartedly that he fits the bill for a screenplay writer better.If his books were dishing out only What Young India Wants ,the movie adaptations of each of his books tapped into that talent more. And his works do not count as any contribution to English literature.These books can be seen as some recent contributions to the English literature

A Train To Pakistan-Khushwant Singh(I know this is not a recent one but I loved this book )

 The God Of Small Things-Arundhathi Roy

The White Tiger-Arvind Adiga

Ibis trilogy-Amitav Ghosh

The Inheritance of Loss-Kiran Desai

Midnight’s Children-Salman Rushdie(still in my TBR list)

So,that brings up another question -if the book is not in English, does it’s literary value diminish? Will that book not gain widespread recognition that generally comes with English? The answer is a straight NO. Have a look at the list below –

The Millennium trilogy(Swedish) – Stieg Larsson

The Alchemist (and every other title by the same author in Portuguese) – Paulo Coelho

The Dinner (Dutch) – Herman Koch.

For more  click here.The more I google,the more number of whole new lists keep coming up.

When it comes to India, there are several languages and only very few epic works have got the privilege of reaching a wider audience (especially the regional works capturing the society and the political scenario in the background during the independence movements) . Sometimes, translation would prove to be a lesser substitute as the dialect of the regional language which gives the distinct style cannot be captured in a foreign language. For Indian readers check out this link  for some must-read translations.

When I was reading Michael’s post, the words “A scorpion’s gotta sting, a writer’s gotta write.” brought Chetan Bhagat instantly to my mind and this post.Thanks Michael for giving me a title for the post. If I might add, write  something worthwhile first . Probably he should have a paper with these words pasted just above his writing desk. He might be an alumnus of IIM-A but now you are a writer, you should know better that all the marketing gimmicks would not help if your story relies heavily on everything else except a good plot-line. He had done it previously and gotten away with it but this time, his marketing backfired in an epic way.

Lastly, to quote the man himself –“ I think half the trees in the world are felled to make up the IIT entrance exam guides. Most of them are crap ” Just substitute IIT entrance exam guides for Chetan’s books. Just can’t resist taking a parting shot 🙂